Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Thank You

I just wanted to reach out and say thank you.  Thank you for the outpouring of love, support and most of all prayers. Josh, Kye, Aubrey and I are so blessed beyond measure for each and everyone of you. I am sorry if you have sent me a message or called and I haven't responded, but know I cherish every single thought, every single prayer.

The power of the Internet is amazing.  Aubrey's story has been read almost 12,000 times in 10 different countries! I just cannot believe that.  It is so humbling and so encouraging. The thought of that many prayer warriors gives me such strength.  Again, thank you to all who shared her story in one way or another.

Also through the Internet I have been able to read about others experience with TD.  One particular blog, Wonderfully Made, actually gave me strength, inspiration and encouragement to write my blog. To see another family with our faith walk through what we are about to walk through has helped me almost more than anything.  The author and I have also been I contact.  I am grateful to her for being available for questions that I may have.

My three best friends and resident classmates made a trip this weekend.  Just their presence was freeing.  The have seen me at my best and my worst.  They share the same medical knowledge that is both a blessing and a curse in times like these.  They love my kiddo like he was their own (after all they were in his delivery!). Basically, they were my salvation this weekend.




My dear friend Laine wrote in her blog some of the nicest things about me and Aubrey-girl.  Plus, gave me an hour and a half phone date distraction.  Read her blog here.

The residents still remaining at Ochsner sent me beautiful flowers yesterday.

My partners have listened to my every crazy thought, took some of my call, and been overall the most supportive women...confirming God's placement of me in this practice.

My office girls have doted on me, loved on me, cried with me, offered to keep Kye, to clean my house, made sure I ate during the day, forced my prenatal vitamins in my mouth.  Basically an office full of mommas. 

My family has just been perfection...nothing else needs to be said about that.

The list goes on and on and on.

Proverbs 27:17 states:
       " Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another”

And in Ecclesiastes 4:
“9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11Again, if two lie together, they keep warm,  i but how can one keep warm alone? 12And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

God has blessed our family with such incredible friends. Without them and our amazing families, I am not sure what we would do.  God knows just what to give us to sustain us.  I just pray that I can glorify him through Aubrey's life and story.  The people around me have already been a key part  to directing me into His arms and for being an example of His love. 

Love you all.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Our Story

I am 20 weeks pregnant with a beautiful baby girl named Aubrey. Up to this week, our story has been very "normal", very "traditional".  Last week that changed....

But first a little about us. I am married to a wonderful man named Josh.  He is an investor/entrepreneur and I am an Ob/Gyn.  We have a precious, crazy, fun-loving 2 year old named Kye. I just finished my residency in July. We moved to a new town near Josh's family and I entered into an amazing private practice.  Life was good.  We decided we were ready to expand our family.

We were blessed in that we got pregnant right away.  I found out in late October that we were pregnant.  As an Ob/Gyn, I am always cautiously optimistic until we have seen a heart beat and gotten further along.  But all went perfectly...



As an Ob/Gyn, I did ultrasounds every week, just for fun!   One of the perks of the job :).  Around 15-16 weeks (after we found out it was a girl), we started noticing her legs looked short.  But, Kye, Josh and I all have LONG torsos and very short legs...so I kinda blew it off and joked that she was just like us!  However, once it was 19 weeks and she was only measuring 14-15 weeks on her little legs...I started to get worried.  My sweet partners reassured me but suggested I go to see a high risk specialist, just to be safe.  We all convinced our selves we were just getting bad views or just bad at ultrasound...haha.

To make a long story a little shorter, I called my MFM buddy in New Orleans and he got me hooked with the quickness to UAB MFM (high risk).  THEY WERE AMAZING!!!! 

What they found was that Aubrey girl had very short arms and legs...less than the 1% for her age.  In addition to being short, her long bones (femur, humerus, etc) were also slightly bowed or curved.  Also, her chest is small, less than the 20%.  Everything else looks great on her.  Her heart is beautiful.  Her brain is normal.  Her abdomen and all its organs look great.  He tells us that this picture is consistent with a rare skeletal dysplasia called Thanatophoric Dysplasia.  He also told us that his gut is that this is a lethal anomaly.

Wow. Lethal anomaly...that hit me in the gut.  I had pretty much convinced myself that their was something going on, but I was thinking Down Syndrome, Achondroplasia (non-lethal dwarfism).  I had NOT thought I was dealing with something lethal. 

Why is it lethal?  Because not only are her limb bones very short, so are her chest bones.  Her chest will likely not get big enough to allow lungs to grow to the size needed to support her outside of me -   Hypoplastic lungs, for my medical people.  Now he (MFM) isn't 100% sure that Thanatophoric dysplasia is the specific type of dyplasia, but he IS sure its a skeletal dysplasia and there is no use in an amniocentesis for further genetic testing.  We will be able to determine the course of action by her ultrasound.  He stated that if her chest size got below the 10th%, we can almost be assured that she will not have enough lung tissue to sustain her outside of utero. 

SOOOOOO...that is where we stand.  We will have a repeat ultrasound in 3 weeks to determine if she is growing and by how much.  He thinks I should carry her to term.  She is happy as a lark in there.  He thinks she will be born alive and die shortly after. 

Psalm 139 has become my anthem:

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
 
God always knew that this was going to be Aubrey's story.  Pray for peace for us.  Pray for clarity in her prognosis.  Pray for miracles.  I will be updating this blog as we learn more...